Memphis Grizzlies

You have to feel like this was a long time coming for Memphis, which spent all those season with a competitive, yet aging roster and didn’t do a whole lot to build for the future.

The Grizzlies didn’t sell out to win now at any point, but maybe they should have. Instead, the front office kind of just let things run their course. The result was that they competed in the playoffs for several season in a row, but now are left with the scraps of a roster that become too old and expensive.

The Lakers are still at the bottom of the Western Conference, but the more you look at the standings, the more it looks like the bottom of the West will come down to the Kings and Grizzlies. Both teams are laden with old, relatively unmotivated journeymen and doesn’t have a lot of excitement to bring to the table. The Lakers could hit the rookie wall as a team, but there is some energy with that group. We’ll see how it all turns out.

The only thing Memphis has going for it is Marc Gasol, who is still a fine player in his age 33 season. He scored 21 points with ten rebounds and seven assists in Memphis’ last game, a win over New Orleans.

Denver Nuggets

Denver should be on the way to the playoffs, which makes Wednesday night’s home loss to the Hawks all the more puzzling.

Dennis Schroder had 19 points and ten assists, both team highs, to lead his Hawks to a double-digit win on the road in one of the toughest buildings to win in around the league.

Side note: Atlanta looks set to put the Orlando Magic in their rearview mirror in the East, but this game is concerning the Nuggets.

Nikola Jokic flirted with a triple-double but he had just nine points. Denver is better when Jokic is scoring somewhere between 15 and 20, while still getting his teammates involved. Sometimes it’s easy for everybody on the Nuggets to defer to his teammates because there are so many decent options, but not one great one. Jokic has to be that great option.

He matches up exceptionally well with Gasol, so it should be the other guys who win this game for Denver: Jamal Murray, Gary Harris, Will Barton. The Nuggets’ advantage here is speed. Memphis is the slowest team in the NBA and Denver should be able to run them.

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